Meulensteen told 888sport: “Perisic has good experience and pace and could come in and create things. He is comfortable on the ball, can beat a man and has a fantastic pass.

“It’s important that United have a man who can open up defences with one pass and he has that. He can offer them another level of a goal threat.”

Perisic has also backed United’s efforts to bring in Alvaro Morata and reckons the Real Madrid man would be a better option to Andrea Belotti.

‘Morata is a good striker, he’s mobile, agile, and creates chances,” he added. “The same can be said of Belotti but both would be coming from abroad and would have to adapt to the Premier League which we all know is difficult.

“If Belotti comes in it’s important that he scores early and get the monkey off his back. Then he could be a good fit. For me, though, it would be Morata. We haven’t seen enough of him lately but it is extremely hard to get into that Real team.”